Seafood has always been a Fulton staple. As early as the 1880s, commercial fishing for trout, redfish, sheepshead, turtles, and oysters had become significant for Fulton's economy. About 1888, David Rockport Scrivner opened Miller Brothers Fish Company at Broadway on the waterfront, and utilized sailing scows whose nets captured up to 2,000 pounds in a catch.
In the early 1900s, local fishermen began harvesting shrimp and building boats in their home yards. By the 1950s, the Fulton harbor front included the Casterline Fish Co., Fulton Fish Co., Fulton Fish and Oyster Co., Rauquette & Wendell Fish Co., Johnson Fish Co., and Dietrich Brothers Seafood.
The Casterlines—Cecil, Frank, then L.E.—had a plant where workers packed shrimp as well as oysters, paying wages in tokens that could be cashed or spent in town.
In 1975, the family of Nguyen Van Ban became the first of dozens of Vietnamese immigrant families to move to Fulton to work in the shrimping industry. Within a few years, several had built their own boats.
In 1979, the town of Fulton began its annual celebration, Oysterfest, to honor the importance of the fishing industry to the community.
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